The Covenant Intervention
by Bob95
Summary: Find out what happens when it is the Alliance, not the UNSC the Covenant comes into contact with. What choices will Shepard make? How will the Reapers react to a faction with technology outside their control? There's only one way to find out


**Location: Earth  
Reaper Invasion**

Church struggled to lift the large piece of metal that pinned his legs to the ground. He could feel the red blood dripping from the back of his head, he reached up his hand and felt the warm liquid push between his fingers. Bringing his hand back to see it caused him to grow woozy. Struggling, he attempted to stand up only to fall back down to the ground.

_Need to slow down, focus_, he thought as he scanned the area around him. _Have to remember what happened._

All around him the air hung thick with the stench of death, reeked of burning flesh and metal. The road he was on had vehicles twisted and bent, with bodies protruding from impossible angles. One had managed to land just next to him. It was a child no older than six or seven. It possessed a blank stare on its face and blood was pooling from the corpse onto the concrete.

Church grimaced and looked away, trying his hardest to ignore the corpse, or he would have been brought to tears. There was no time to worry about the dead. Skycars had crashed to the ground, and the rest were all land-based vehicles. Many Humans still used them in more rural areas as they were more reliable and less prone to turbulence. This road was the only one for miles. Church could barely see London in the distance.

Church crawled over to a car close to him and leaned on the tire. Every part of his body was bruised and sore. Cursing he shifted his weight to his arm, only to fall back down. He gave up on trying to move, instead choosing to rest for a moment. He tried to remember where he was headed.

_London._ _We were headed to London when something hit us._

Church suddenly forced himself up, pushing every thought of pain to the back of his mind. He spotted his skycar, crashed into the ground a few yards away from where he landed. He was thrown out as it plummeted to the ground. The side door was completely thrown off, and the entire vehicle was devoid of any glass. Church looked over his car. It took him nearly three years to save enough for the skycar and had been one of his few possessions that weren't standard issue. To see it in such a state was disheartening.

He shook his head clearing his mind, _I've got_ more_ important things to worry about._

Rushing over he looked into the canopy. There he found only one seat remained in the car. It contained all of his weapons and armor, the other three seats must have been thrown or scattered. _Wait where's..._ he thought to himself as panic began to set in. He speedily leaned out of the car and scanned the area, struggling to remember the crash.

A large beam of red light came from the sky and had started destroying the vehicles in front of them. Erin was driving with him in the passenger seat, Manny sat in the back. They all saw the beam, and Erin attempted to move only to hit a skycar next to her. The driver was frozen in fear, the beam continued down the road destroying everything in front of them. Erin attempted to move again but was stopped as the beam barely skimmed the right side of the vehicle. The skycar next to them was completely incinerated. The damage done to vehicle had caused it to fall rapidly, there were only a few dozen feet from them and the ground. The side door had flown off and the car began to spin rapidly. Church had been flown from the canopy before it hit the ground.

_So they are alive, oh thank God_, he thought to himself as he continued to search around the vehicle for anyone else still moving. For what ever reason they had survived the crash and must have been up and looking for help, or possibly him. It wasn't long until he had spotted them on the other side of a car resting for a moment. Manny had his armed wrapped around Erin's shoulder and was limping slowly. Church rushed over to them struggling through the pain, his only thoughts being on his squad mates. Erin and Manny stood there with mouths agap in shock, neither of them were able to say a word as Church helped carry Manny back to his skycar. They placed him on the front hood laying him flat as possible

"We thought you were dead," Manny said as he coughed up blood. "Or have I already kicked the bucket?"

"Come on, you could never get rid of me that easy," Church said. He ripped off a sleeve of his shirt, and used it to stop Manny's leg from losing any more blood flow. "Erin I keep a pack of medi-gel in compartment on the side."

Without another word Erin opened the side flap revealing an emergency med-kit. She rushed it over to Church who was able to stabilize Manny's condition. Erin leaned against the car and slid down to the ground, her hands covering her face. Manny had passed out, and Church was attempting to clean his wounds. After finishing his basic first aid, Church turned to Erin. He knelt down next to her, she was beginning to cry. This was by far the hardest thing to deal with so far. For as long as Church had known Erin she had never once been brought to tears, even after the death of Sam.

She was one of the coldest members of their N7 squad, fitting due to her position as sniper. It was the stereotypical sniper personality, detached until she was directly engaged with the action. Yet the entire squad had taken to her, treated her like family even. That's all they really were was a family, most of them never saw or spoke with their actual relatives. For Church himself, he always pictured the squad as the family he never had. Which hurt him even more to see anyone of them in pain or worse, dead. Which was an all too familiar fate for those in his squad.

They were all highly trained special forces, each one able to go well above and beyond. Their missions were normally covered up and classified, but Church still believed they did good work for the Alliance and humanity non the less. The only surviving members of the squad were himself, Erin, and Manny. Now it looked bleak, with Manny holding on by a thread.

Church placed a hand on Erin's shoulders trying to comfort her but to no avail. He began to speak but was immediately interrupted by an unnatural noise. It was a deafening, mechanical roar that caused the ground to shake. Erin immediately looked up towards the city, Church doing the same. They had been so worried about Manny and trying to regroup after the crashe that none of them bothered to ask what had caused it. Looking up they saw a monstrous mechanical beast. It possessed a large body with tentacles coming out of the main segment, it reminded Church of a cuttlefish. And dozens of them could be seen descending from the sky attacking indiscriminately against the city. There was one descending from the sky close to them, it flew over the road and headed straight towards London, with several smaller machines of a similar shape following.

Church and Erin looked at each other. They both knew exactly what caused this destruction and knew exactly what would happen now. The Reapers were here and the Harvest had begun...

They both looked back towards the city, smoke had already begun blanketing the sky. However they were still able to make out when small blue like ruptures appeared. It was the obvious signs that a Covenant ship was exiting slipspace. Church checked his omni-tool, most of the Alliance ships above Earth had been destroyed. Yet a single frigate remained heading away from the planet with haste. It was the Normandy, and it was still broadcasting a visual from above the planet to any Alliance forces still watching. On his arm Church saw a single Covenant assault carrier along with several battlecruisers exiting slipspace and entering Earth's atmosphere. Not a single Reaper ship was attacking them, and they proceeded without opening fire on any Reaper vessels.

Church became flabbergasted, the Covenant had found Earth. Even after all they sacrificed at the Halo, the Covenant were unfazed. Worse yet they were assisting the Reapers in destroying Earth.

"I don't know how Shepard plans to save us, but what ever he does he'd better do it quick.

Or there may not be an Earth to save."


End file.
